For those who know me, you know I’m a squirrel. ADHD has always been a curse, but squirrels have value too dammit! Truth is, ADHD is partly to blame for me neglecting to update this site (evanfrancen.com).

Since we’re talking about ADHD. Here’s what Mayo Clinic has to say about the matter (rumor has it, they’re pretty credible).

Adult ADHD symptoms may include:

• Impulsiveness – CHECK
• Disorganization and problems prioritizing – CHECK
• Poor time management skills – CHECK
• Problems focusing on a task – CHECK (unless it’s really cool, then I will forget that anything else exists)
• Trouble multitasking – N/A
• Excessive activity or restlessness – CHECK
• Poor planning – CHECK (actually, the plan is crystal clear in my brain, but I might have forgotten to tell you and everyone else)
• Low frustration tolerance – CHECK (I’m mostly always frustrated, but it’s probably not with you)
• Frequent mood swings – N/A
• Problems following through and completing tasks – CHECK
• Hot temper – N/A
• Trouble coping with stress – N/A

OK, so I’m directly associating myself with eight of these twelve symptoms. I don’t have trouble multi-tasking. I have trouble un-multitasking. My mood doesn’t swing too much. I’m pretty even keel, sometimes to a fault. I don’t have a hot temper. Maybe this is because I’m really logical vs. emotional, also sometimes to a fault. I don’t have trouble coping with stress. Sadly, I create stress for others and when I deal with stress, it doesn’t feel like stress.

Mayo Clinic calls ADHD a “mental health disorder”. I can’t help but wonder, does “disorder” always bad? If they’re referring to disorder as in “illness”, let me be honest with you, I don’t mind being sick! ADHD can be a superpower. There are things I can do better than others who don’t share my derangement/disorder/illness.

ADHD Superpowers

I’m convinced that everyone has superpowers. Regardless of any disorder, ADHD or other, people have unique qualities about them. These unique qualities can be superpowers when/if they’re identified and managed properly. Sadly, too many people fail to ever discover and/or leverage their superpowers. Specific to ADHD, Minnesota Neuropsychology lists these potential superpowers:

• Divergent thinking, creativity, generativity
• Flexibility of thought, movement, emotion
• Intuition and connection to emotion
• Perception/observation/curiosity
• Need for movement and exploration
• Low tolerance for tedium
• Preference for active, hands-on tasks
• Social influence and charisma
• Leadership

Cool! I can relate to some of these superpowers. Let’s check another source. Verywell Health lists these superpowers:

• Individually:
  • Energy
  • Self-awareness
  • Self-reliance
  • Resilience
• At Work or School:
  • Creativity
  • Hyperfocus
  • Risk tolerance
• In Relationships:
  • Clear expectations
  • Impulsivity
  • Receptiveness to therapy and behavioral approaches

Hell yeah, I got some of these too! Reading through these sources, I’m learning more and more about me and how ADHD plays a role in my life. Not everything applies specifically to me, but most of it does. One last source (mostly because I’m having fun now). WebMD’s website ADDitude lists these superpowers:

• Problem Solving
• Imagination & Creativity
• Compassion
• Sense of Humor
• Perseverance
• Keen Memory and Sense of Observation
• Multitasking
• Laser-Focus
• Endless Energy
• Zeal for Life
• Acceptance
• Strong Moral Compass

Shit, I’m starting to think that I really dig my “mental disorder”! I can relate to many of the characteristics listed by these sources, and it’s giving me more confidence to embrace the good while trying to minimize the bad. About the only superpower that doesn’t fit, at least not as much as I wish it would, is “Energy” or “Endless Energy”. Maybe it’s because I’m older now, or maybe it’s because I need to live healthier.

Regardless, I love my ADHD and will take the good with the bad. There’s a lot more good in my opinion!

About EvanFrancen.com

You might be wondering what any of this has to do with not updating my website. In full transparency, I despise excuses, but I’m going to use ADHD as my excuse anyway. Let’s go back to my list of curses:

• Impulsiveness – Since we moved to Mexico, there’s been so many amazing things to discover! The views are incredible, the weather is great, and the people/culture is indescribably awesome. Impulses have taken me all over the place and it’s hard to stop running all over the place. This can be both good and bad of course, but it’s not conducive to writing articles for my personal blog.
• Disorganization and problems prioritizing – Always an issue. I prioritize the things that seem (to me at the time) to be most important to my mission. In all the things I’ve been doing, updating this site hasn’t made it on to my mental list of things to do. Until now.
• Poor time management skills – 24 hours is NOT enough time in the day, seven days is NOT enough time in the week, and fifty-two weeks in a year is bullshit for doing all the stuff I want to do! Maybe it would help if I stopped saying “yes” to everything.
• Problems focusing on a task – Well, this one at least.
• Trouble multitasking – Still an N/A mostly.
• Excessive activity or restlessness – But, you have no idea how many cool things there are to do around here! Seriously. I’ve been on hikes all over this place, visited a TON of great restaurants, became a certified SCUBA Rescue Diver, learned how to weld (and built a steel pool table), welcomed more than 120 guests to stay at our house (stays from 4 days to 2+ weeks), discovered beautiful waterfalls, watched whales from my house, flown my drone everywhere, become a semi-expert on pool maintenance, rescued two dogs (fostered one and kept the other), bought two motorcycles (along with the crazy adventures), bought a new pickup truck (which means I need to do pickup trucky things with it), experienced my first Category 4 hurricane (140 MPH winds are wild), tried surfing (and mighta had a heart attack), etc. This is only what I recall while I sit here writing this post. On the work side of my life, holy shit! Just a few things that I’ll mention now. Created a certification for vCISOs (called CvCISO), certified 100+ CvCISOs (and the community is growing fast), created Project Broken Mirror (you’ll learn more about this later), delivered free CISSP training to more 35,000 students from 150+ countries (as part of the FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program), started a new non-profit, and a new company. Now that I’m back to updating my site, you’ll learn more about all this stuff. All this is just the tip of the iceberg. We could definitely claim that this curse (or superpower?) has kept me away.
• Poor planning – I know this is true, but I don’t know to what extent because I don’t really pay attention to it. I just do stuff. Maybe if I planned better, I’d have more time for writing here.
• Low frustration tolerance – Frustration just feeds into the motivation which feeds into the excessive activity which feeds into…
• Frequent mood swings – Still an N/A mostly.
• Problems following through and completing tasks – Yeah. Guilty. Not just here updating my site either.
• Hot temper – Still an N/A mostly.
• Trouble coping with stress – Still an N/A mostly.

Summary

Excuse or not, I’m blaming my ADHD curses for not updating my site more often. It’s not like ADHD is some mysterious person to blame, I am ADHD and ADHD is me. We’re inseparable. The superpowers get the credit for doing really cool shit in lieu of updating my site. Now that I’ve squirreled back here, I’m pretty sure I’ll writing more often. Hopefully, you’ll find value in what I write. If not, maybe you’ll find some entertainment. I’m excited to share all the cool stuff with the rest of the world. Well, you’re not really “the rest of the world”, but you’re like a part of it or something!

I’ll be back soon!